Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1887-04-16

and the Captain is frenzied, and he
gives orders that no one hail the passing
ships He says: Il shall either land this YES
sci in Hamburg or on the bottom of the ocean,
and | don't care which, Yonder is a
ship of the White Star line passing. Yonder
one of the National line. Yonder one of the
lnman line. But they know not there is any
calamity happening on that one vessel. Oh!
il the captain would only put his trumpet to
his lip, and cry out: Lower your boats
Bear down this wayi We are burning upi
Fire! Firep No. No. No signal is given.
If that vessel perishes, having hailed no one,
whose fault will it bea Will it be the fault of
the ship that hid its calamity, or will it be
the fault of the vessels that, passing on the
high seas, would have been glad to furnish re-
lief tit had been only asked. In other words,
my brother, if you miss heaven it will be
your own fault.
No one cares for your soull Why, in all the
ages there have been men whose entire bust
ness was soul saving. In this work Munson
went down under the knives of the cannibals
whom he had come to save, and Robert Nc
Cheyne preached himself to death by thirty
years of age, and John Bunyan was thrown
into dungeon in Bedfordshire, and Jehudi
Ashnan endured all the malarias of the Afri-
can jungle; and there are hundreds and thou
sands Of Christian men and women now who
are praying, toiling, preaching, living, dying,
to save souls
No one cares for your soul Have you heard
how Christ feels about its l know it was
only five or six miles from Bethlehem to
Calvary, the birthplace and the deathplace
of Christ; but who can tell how many miles
it was from the throne to the mangeri How
many miles down, how many miles back
agains The place of his departure was the
focus of all splendor and pomp; all the
thrones facing his throne; his name the chorus
n and tho fraco
banner; his landing place a cattle pen, NAL
odorous with unwashed brutes, and dogs
growing in and out of the stable Born
of weary mother who had journeyed
eighty miles in severe unhealth that She
might find the right place for the Lords ma
tivity-born, not as other princes, under the
flash of q chandelier, but under a lantern
swung by rope to the roof of the barn. In
that place Christ started to save you. Your
name, your face, your time, your eternity,
in Christ's mind Sometimes travelling on
mules back to escape old Herods massacre.
sometimes attempting nervo Is sleep on the
chilly hillside, sometimes earning his break
fast by the carpentry of pillow. In Quaran-
tania the stones of the field, by their shape
and color looking like the loaves of bread,
tantalizing his hunger. Yet all the time
keeping on after you. With drenched coat
treading the surf at Genessaret. Howled after
by bloodthrsty mob. Denounced as a
drunkard Mourning over doomed city,
while others shouted at the sight of the SHIN
mering towers. All the time coming on and
coming on to save you. Indicted as being a
traitor against government, perjured wit
nessss swearing their souls away to insure
his butchery. Flogged, spit on, slapped in
the face and then hoisted on rough lumber,
in sight of earth and heaven and hell to
purchase your eternal emancipation From
the first infant step TO the last step of man.
Tor vou. Oh, how he cared for your SOUL
BY dolorous arithmetic add up the stah;s, the
wintry tempest, the midnight dampness. the
abstinence of forty days from food, the brutal
Sanhedrim, the heights of Golgotha, across
which all the hatr5ds of earth and all the
furies of hell charged with their bayonets, and
then dare to say again that no one cares for
your soul.
young man might as we'll go off from
home and give his father and mother no init
nation as to where he has gone, and, cross
ing the seas, sitting down in some foreign
country, cold, sick and hungry and lonely,
saying: MY father and mother don't care
anything about me-" Do not care anything
about him! Why, that fathers hair has
turned gray since his son went off. He has
written to all the consuls in the foreign ports,
asking about that SON Does not the mother
care anything about him. He has broken her
heart She has never smiled since he went
away. All day long. and almost all night,
she keeps asking: "Where is he's Where can
he bef'' He is the first thought in her prayer
and the last thought in her prayer, the first
thought in tae morning and the last at night.
She says: "Oh, God, bring back my boyl |
must see him again before die, Where is
hef ! must see him again before l die. ooh,
do not his father and mother care for HIM
You go away from your Heavenly Father,
and you think he does not care for you
because you will not even read the letters by
which he invites you to come back, while
all heaven is waiting, and waiting, and wait
ing for you to return. A young man said to
his father: Il am going off; will write to
yon at the end of seven years and tell you
where l am Many years have passed along
since that son went away, and for years the
father has been going TO tho depot
in the village, on the arrival of every
train. and when he hears the whistle in the
distance he is thrilled with excitement, and
he waits until all the passengers have come
out and then he waits until the train has
gone clear out of sight again, and then he
goes home, Fastening back to the next train
and he will be at every train until that son
comes back, unless the son waits until the
father be dead. But oh, the greater patience
of God. He has been waiting for you, not
seven years, not nine years, but for some Of
you, twenty years, thirty years, forty years,
fifty years-waiting, calling waiting, calling
until nothing but ominpotent patience could
have endured it. Oh, my brother, do not take
the sentiment Of my text as your sentiment.
We do care for your soul. One Sabbath
night, years ago, in my church in Brook
Ign. young man appeared at the end of the
platform and he said to me: "Ihave Just come
of the sea-" said: "When did YOU arriver'
Said he: 81 came into port this afternoon. l
was in great blow, off Cape Hatteras this
last week, and l thought that / might as
vol go to heaven as to hell.
thought the ship would sink but, sir,
never very seriously thought about
my soul until tonight" I said to him: do
you feel that Christ is able and willing to
save YOU" ooh, yes" he replied, 81 do"
Nv ell" l said, ''now are you willing to come
and be saved by HimT' 81 ann he said
We'll, will you now, in the prayer we are
about to offer, give yourself to God for time
and eternitym II will, y he said Then we
knelt in prayer, and after we had got
through praying, he told me that the great
transformation had taken place l could not
doubt it. He is on the sea now. l do not
know what other port he may gain or lose
but think he will gain the harbor of heaven
Star of peace, beam DER the billow,
Bless the soul that signs for Thes:
Bless the sailors lonely pillow,
Far, far at sea.
II was sudden conversion with him that
night. Oh, that it might be sudden CONVEX
sion with You today God can save you in
one moment as well as he can in a century.